Adoptees Relearning Their Heritage Languages: A Postcolonial Reading of Language and Dialogue in Transnational Adoption

Autor/inn/en	Sacré, Hari Prasad Adhikari; Cawayu, Atamhi; Clemente-Martínez, Chandra Kala
Titel	Adoptees Relearning Their Heritage Languages: A Postcolonial Reading of Language and Dialogue in Transnational Adoption
Quelle	In: Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 66 (2023) 4, S.267-272 (6 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Sacré, Hari Prasad Adhikari) ORCID (Cawayu, Atamhi) ORCID (Clemente-Martínez, Chandra Kala)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1081-3004
DOI	10.1002/jaal.1275
Schlagwörter	Adult Literacy; Adoption; Heritage Education; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Foreign Countries; Literacy Education; Native Language; Language Skill Attrition + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Ausland; Sprachverfall
Abstract	This theoretical article reflects on a recent development in adult literacy studies: transnational adoptees relearning their heritage languages. Literacy and adoption scholars have studied the replacement of the heritage language with a second language and reported it as a permanent loss. Returning to the country of origin, return adoptees challenge such notion by relearning the heritage language as part of their homecoming. We explore how this heritage language relearning could be seen as a renegotiation of the language hierarchies between the adoptive community and the community of origin of languages in the relationship between the adoptive region and the region of origin. Building on Gayatri Chakrabarty Spivak's "Enabling Violation" concept, we deploy a postcolonial perspective on understanding heritage language relearning in transnational adoptees. We discuss how language relearning can challenge and reproduce the asymmetrical relation between adoptees' position in the Global North and their first families in the Global South. We argue that heritage language relearning can open the door for adoptees to engage with transnational literacy, carving out global learning trajectories and reconnecting their adoptive and first world. The last section of this article discusses adoption organisations' dialectic response to this shift by partaking in the organisation of heritage language classes for adoptees. We argue that adult education centres and literacy educators can play a pivotal role in further institutionalising these heritage language classes for transnational adoptees. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01